The present invention relates to mounts for positioning and aligning optics in a desired orientation. In particular, the present invention relates to a ruggedized optical beam steering/alignment device for use in military, commercial, and/or laboratory applications.
Most miniaturized optical assemblies utilize small “fast” (i.e. short focal length) lenses to minimize the overall size of the product. Using “fast” lenses increase the sensitivity to misalignment and to out of focus conditions, therefore requiring very precise and expensive mounting and adjustment features. Many beam steering systems require multiple optical mounts positioned at different angles in order to steer an optical beam from a source to a desired location. Thus, a significant amount of space and access in many directions is required to make adjustments to the beam steering components. These spatial issues become most problematic when the optical mounts are employed in applications such as aircraft that employ optical guidance, navigation, control, tracking systems, air data sensing, icing condition detection, water droplet size sensing, water content sensing and imaging, where the amount of space that is available to house the optical mount and ready access thereto is extremely limited.
Many off-the-shelf optical mounts are not designed to operate within or survive the harsh environments normally encountered in military applications involving aircraft and laser guided munitions. They often use light springs to hold components together, and can even require significant potting or epoxy for locking the components in place to prevent them from moving once adjusted. Further, some prior art optical mounts require separate fixtures to perform the angular adjustments, which results in more space necessary to adjust out of focus lenses and misalignments of the optical steering device.
There is clearly a need in the art for a ruggedized optical beam steering/alignment device that is easy to manufacture and construct, and that can be employed in the harsh environments often encountered in applications involving aircraft, missiles and projectiles, where the available space and ready access to the optical device is limited.